Roberts backs Senate health care plan draft; Moran cautious

June 23--WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Topeka, sounded supportive of the discussion draft for the Senate's coming health care bill. Kansas' other Republican senator, Jerry Moran, Manhattan, spoke with caution Thursday.

In a statement released after seeing a discussion draft of the bill, Roberts said:

"For more than seven years, Obamacare's mandates, taxes and regulations have wreaked havoc on our health care system and Americans' pocketbooks. Since the law's insurance mandates took effect, premiums in Kansas have doubled and insurers have exited the individual insurance market. We cannot continue to allow Obamacare to bring our healthcare system crashing down around our shoulders.

"The Senate bill protects the very sick, seniors and young people. People with pre-existing conditions will keep their health care. Children under 26 remain on the parents' plans. There are no annual or lifetime limits on coverage. We reduce the deficit; we reform Medicaid, one of the big three entitlements. We eliminate the gap in coverage Obamacare created that hurt too many low-income families. We stabilize collapsing insurance markets.

"It is time to put ideology aside and move. What is the alternative? Single payer, socialized medicine? The American people don't want that. We can't delay. Delay is higher premiums, higher co-pays and less choice. This bill is the best path to immediate relief for patients in 2018. This bill is the best possible bill under very difficult circumstances."

Moran said he was not for Obamacare and "was the first member of Congress to offer legislation" to repeal it.

As for the Senate's alternative, Moran said, "If this bill isn't good for Kansas, it isn't good for me."

Moran also said he "will fully review this legislation and am awaiting the Congressional Budget Office score to gain a complete understanding of the impacts and consequences this bill would have on hardworking Kansans."

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